Data from: A highly-resolved food web for insect seed predators in a species-rich tropical forest

The top-down and indirect effects of insects on plant communities depend
on patterns of host use, which are often poorly documented, particularly
in species-rich tropical forests. At Barro Colorado Island, Panama, we
compiled the first food web quantifying trophic interactions between the
majority of co-occurring woody plant species and their internally-feeding
insect seed predators. Our study is based on more than 200,000 fruits
representing 478 plant species, associated with 369 insect species. Insect
host-specificity was remarkably high: only 20% of seed predator species
were associated with more than one plant species, while each tree species
experienced seed predation from a median of two insect species. Phylogeny,
but not plant traits, explained patterns of seed predator attack. These
data suggest that seed predators are unlikely to mediate indirect
interactions such as apparent competition between plant species, but are
consistent with their proposed contribution to maintaining plant diversity
via the Janzen-Connell mechanism.